


drowning in hunger

by deuteroscopies



Series: the prophet and the king [13]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Anal Sex, Childhood Memories, Claiming, Class Differences, Dominance, M/M, Possessive Sex, Rough Sex, Stair Sex, Submission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-04
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:21:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21673612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deuteroscopies/pseuds/deuteroscopies
Summary: Freddie's recovered from the magical flu that laid him low, and Ephram's recovered from the effects of (yet another) attack on Ruby that he got in the way of. Which means they've been longer without sex than either of them like, so they take the edge off and then spend some time reconnecting over year-end holiday plans.
Relationships: Freddie Watts/Ephram Pettaline
Series: the prophet and the king [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1551673





	drowning in hunger

**Author's Note:**

> > Freddie Watts = Tom Hardy FC, Ephram Pettaline = Boyd Holbrook FC. These stories are set in the supernatural town of Soapberry Springs, in the Pacific Northwest. Freddie is a fairy con man from London, with cobalt-coloured dragonfly wings and silver fairy dust, who has a Japanese Chin familiar named Oliver; Ephram is a witch from impoverished East Kentucky who shares his body with a demon called Anaxis and has green magic of his own.
>> 
>> [the prophet and the king 'verse tumblr](http://theprophetandtheking.tumblr.com/)  
> 

[freddie TXT] If I say I think there’s someone skulking around in our shrubbery, will you come and check it out, Deputy?  
  
ephram TXT: Honey I can’t tell if this is an actual thing that’s happening or if you want me to come home and bend you over the kitchen counter  
  
[freddie TXT] It’s entirely the latter - I just thought maybe you’d need a more official reason to venture home. ;)  
  
[TXT] I know you’re busy though, love - so I can sort myself out, till you’ve got the time. I don’t expect you to drop everything just because I’m feeling better. <3  
  
[TXT] In other news, however, our wife’s gone a bit mental.  
  
ephram TXT: FREDDIE you don’t know how goddamn hard it’s been not being able to sort you out, I’m coming home right the fuck now  
  
TXT: Is she? What way? Speaking in tongues?  
  
He didn’t think too much on it, though, tossing his phone on the passenger seat of his department jeep and getting on the road up to the Jamara. The phone pinged with Freddie’s messages as he drove, but Ephram didn’t pause to read them; at the moment it felt like he’d go mental himself to read Freddie’s texts, hear them in his voice, and not have his husband physically in his arms.  
  
[freddie TXT] Oh, thank GOD. I’m fucking gagging for it, love. Drive fast, yeah?  
  
[TXT] Not quite, but I don’t think she’s far off. It’s getting a bit…much.  
  
Ignoring the slight ache in his wings, the rest of his previous symptoms having all but disappeared, Freddie paced around the living room waiting to hear Ephram pull into the driveway; full of pent-up desire.  
  
Ruby’d taken herself off to church again, and as they day had worn on, and Freddie’d continued to feel more and more like himself, he’d realized just how long it had been since he’d been properly seen to. And once he’d gone down that particular rabbit hole, he hadn’t been able to think of much else - finally breaking down and texting Ephram, hoping to entice him home.  
  
(Which, it turned out, had been a stroke of genius, because his witch seemed to be in rather dire need, himself.) Freddie only wished he’d gotten in touch sooner.  
  
So when he finally heard the jeep a few minutes later, the fairy couldn’t help but grin; positioning himself by the door.  
  
Over the kitchen counter, or right here on the living room floor, he thought - either suited him just fine.  
  
Ephram was in much the same state by the time he reached home. Cassie had been the only one he’d dared tell about his inconsiderate glumness at not being able to make love with his poor, sick partners, and since he’d spilled, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it. He was pretty much white-hot with desire by the time he pulled up in front of the door of their house, turning off the jeep and getting out with the keys left in and the door open. Because Freddie was right there, lounging and lovely on the threshold, every line of his body inviting plunder.  
  
Striding onto the porch, Ephram grabbed Freddie around the waist and bore him into the house, the fairy’s heels dragging. They made it as far as the stairs before Ephram set Freddie down and moved on top of him, kissing his husband greedily and bucking his erection against him. “Gonna fuckin’ blow my load right here, Jesus Christ,” he groaned, with a gasping laugh against Freddie’s deliciously fat, familiar mouth. “I missed you, I missed you I _missed_ you, baby, c’mon get your legs up for me so’s I can get inside you and keep us both from goin’ plum crazy.”  
  
Ephram was on him as soon as he stepped foot on the porch, and Freddie let out a moan so eager and wanton that it was almost embarrassing. He kissed Ephram hungrily as his witch propelled them inside and towards the stairs - both of them hard, rubbing needfully against one another - and once he was laid out, panting, on the steps, Freddie didn’t waste any time doing as he was told.  
  
Pulling at Ephram’s shirt with one hand, Freddie struggled out of his pyjama trousers, and threw them away; shifting, despite the way the stairs were digging into his now-tender wings - too far gone to really notice, or care - and drawing his legs up, thighs splayed, as he tugged Ephram closer, kissing him again.  
  
“I missed you too, love,” the fairy breathed, smiling as he rolled his hips, biting gently at his husband’s mouth. “So fucking much…”  
  
Smirking, he dragged his lips over to Ephram’s ear. “Now hurry up and give me that cock.”  
  
“Oh, Freddie honey, you gonna get my cock awright.” Ephram growled as he clawed his belt and pants open, his prick pushing free and already swollen, sticky and hard. He dragged his nose and mouth up the backside of Freddie’s thigh, biting at the back of his knee, and and hooked Freddie’s mouth open with one thumb. “Ain’t gonna be no easy ride now, sweet boy,” Ephram said, half warning and half promise as he pushed two of his fingers into Freddie’s mouth. He knew his fairy, his responsive, delicious fairy, would suck them wet, and when Ephram took his sopping fingers back he spat in his hand as well.  
  
Freddie was tight and almost feverish where Ephram worked his fingers in, softening and stretching his hole for as long as Ephram could stand to wait. “I’m sorry, baby,” Ephram murmured against Freddie’s face, kissing him once and then again and then groaning, loud and pained, when he forced his cock into his husband’s body. The little bit of moisture helped with entry, but not any further than that.  
  
It didn’t matter. The euphoria was instant and full-body, and after he’d taken exactly six seconds to adjust, Ephram pinned Freddie’s shoulder against the steps with one hand and shoved his other arm behind Freddie’s hips and lowered his head. His nose and forehead bumped against Freddie’s face as he started to fuck in earnest, grimacing at the burn and stretch but unable and unwilling to stop. “My baby,” Ephram moaned, rubbing his face against Freddie’s, animalistic and uncontrolled. “Honey, my darlin’, light of my life, you’re mine, ain’t you? You’re _mine_ , Freddie–” a particularly deep thrust, grinding them together, “–and I’ll _kill_ anybody thinks they got the right to touch you without my say-so.”  
  
He didn’t mean it, not in so many words, but saying it hot and hungry while he laid his claim to Freddie’s body made Ephram’s cock even stiffer, if that was possible. “Say it,” Ephram rasped, snapping his teeth sharply against Freddie’s earlobe. “Tell me you’re mine, Freddie, I wanna hear you say it.”  
  
Moaning in equal parts pain and satisfaction, his breathing ragged as he whined his agonized pleasure, Freddie pushed back into each thrust, wanting more; wanting Ephram deeper, and harder. Wanting as much as he could stand, and then some.  
  
But as much as the frenzied nature of their fucking fed his body - that primal carnality that only Ephram could spark inside him setting all of the fairy’s nerve-endings on fire; Ephram’s mouth, and his hands, and his cock, the center of Freddie’s universe - it was what his witch _said_ that made all the difference.  
  
Kissing back as best he could, nuzzling Ephram’s face, and panting out sobs of encouragement - despite the aching burn of being stretched with nothing more to ease the way than spit, excitement, and need - when Freddie realized what his husband was saying, he let out a ragged-sounding whimper, and clutched Ephram tighter.  
  
The fire in Ephram’s words, and the ferocity of his claim, made Freddie feel loved in a way that he couldn’t have described if he’d wanted to. It made him feel necessary, essential. Secure.  
  
And it made his cock throb and leak like a man who’d been edged for _hours_.  
  
He belonged to Ephram - body and soul. And woe betide anyone, or anything, that dared to assume otherwise.  
  
Letting out a whimpered groan when Ephram bit at his earlobe, the fairy used his grip on Ephram’s shoulders to pull himself up, and come down harder on his witch’s next plunge; gasping and shuddering as Ephram’s cock hit his prostate harder.  
  
“I’m yours,” Freddie murmured thickly. “All yours, love. I belong to you…”  
  
Freddie didn’t care for pain, not the way that Ephram chased it down sometimes to make himself feel cut open so the pent-up poison could drain out of him. But he never stopped Ephram when they were fucking, no matter how hard Ephram took him, no matter what Ephram did to him. It was a trust that was at once profoundly touching and searingly arousing and this was no exception, salted through with the desperation of not having been with each other for so long.  
  
Coupled with the sounds that Freddie was making – soft, and high, and begging, and needy – Ephram felt like he could keep fucking his husband until the sun sank away behind the horizon. When Freddie shoved himself down, shuddering around Ephram and promising himself, sounding drunk on cock and sweat and kisses, Ephram stopped moving his hips.  
  
Gathering his concentration, Ephram wrapped his arms around Freddie and hauled him up, their bodies still joined and Freddie’s legs around his hips. Staggering the short way to the living room, Ephram set Freddie against the back of the sofa, fucking into him for a couple long strokes before pulling out. He turned Freddie and bent him over the sofa, pistoning back into his lover’s body and holding there as he licked a long line up Freddie’s spine.  
  
“Just you remember it, Freddie,” Ephram murmured, lapping at the thin isthmus of skin between Freddie’s wings. “Every time you got some other man fuckin’ you out, or his cockhead hitting the back of your throat, and every time you’re bottoming out in some sweet pussy or eating one out, you remember that you get to do that because I allow it.” Ephram slid one arm around Freddie, holding him crosswise across the chest, and steadying his hip with the other hand, biting down on Freddie’s shoulder. “And you remember that this, you can _only_ get this from me.” Ephram slammed up against Freddie’s prostate, then again, measured and hard. “Because I love you, sweetheart, and I _own_ you, and I am gonna protect you from anybody in this world who aims to make you feel like you are any less precious than the goddamn heavens.”  
  
Freddie didn’t expect Ephram to pick him up the way that he did, and he slung one arm around his witch’s neck to keep himself from slipping. The fingers of his other hand were digging into the meat of Ephram’s upper back, and he wrapped his legs tight around his husband’s hips, clenching around the hard cock still buried inside him.  
  
He was smaller than Ephram - despite the thick layer of muscle he maintained - but Freddie knew that he was by no means light; and just that small demonstration of Ephram’s whipcord strength, of the deceptive power he carried, was enough to make the fairy want to plead for more. There was a raw masculinity about Ephram that Freddie couldn’t get enough of - like a scent, thick in his nose - and every little expression of it, only made him hungrier for him. Regardless of the situation.  
  
Something he was sure Ephram had noticed by now.  
  
Freddie was set against the back of the sofa, angled to let Ephram push deeper - which he did; each long, hard stoke making Freddie whine breathlessly - and then suddenly, Ephram pulled out again without warning, leaving the fairy momentarily shocked and bereft.  
  
 _Literally_ momentarily. Because before he could so much as speak Ephram’s name, Freddie was stood on his feet again; turned round, bent over and fucked into, in one smooth forceful stroke, grunting as Ephram bottomed out again. Moaning as he was held still, his husband’s tongue dragging, wet and hot, up to the back of his neck, teasing at the sweaty skin between his wings.  
  
Freddie had always known, vaguely, that he wanted to belong to someone; to be loved, and wanted; to be necessary. But it wasn’t until he’d fallen in love with Ephram that he’d realized the depth of that desire.  
  
Or maybe it wasn’t _until_ Ephram that the desire itself had evolved.  
  
Either way though, it amounted to the same thing.  
  
And Freddie knew that it was true, what Ephram said - that this could only come from him. They’d joked about it since their first night together - how they’d ruined each other for other men - but for Freddie it was undeniably true. For better or worse, Ephram was the only man that mattered. He was the only one who could.  
  
And Freddie wanted to believe every promise that fell out of his mouth.  
  
Weak-kneed and trembling as Ephram pounded against his prostate, his chest heaving, Freddie moaned louder, and took himself in hand; jerking himself roughly as Ephram fucked him.  
  
Needing to come, but rocking back into each aching snap of Ephram’s hips. Wanting to feel Ephram’s warmth in his belly before he let go.  
  
That difference in how they were built was one of the things that tantalized Ephram entirely when he and Freddie had sex; it was so fitting to Freddie that he have such flawless musculature, classically heavy like some Renaissance Apollo – and yet he was _so small_ against Ephram, so easy to enfold and cover and spread himself over. Freddie was no slouch physically and Ephram loved the strength in his husband’s body, whichever one of them was doing the fucking, but Ephram had been bred for endurance. His were working muscles built up slow from youth, bunchy under his skin instead of sculpted.  
  
But so long as he had enough heft to hold his fairy close when he needed to, Ephram didn’t think about it much. He’d rather think about Freddie’s body bent beneath his, moving with a slutty intent that drew a growl all the way up Ephram’s chest like it was on a string. There weren’t any words left, Ephram had spilled them in their entirety already, but he still had Freddie’s name to sweeten his tongue with and he repeated it mindlessly as he rode into his fairy’s body. One given gladly, one so exquisite, and just like every time Ephram was overwhelmed by the fact that this exceptional man had chosen him to come home to.  
  
And each time he felt it, there was less astonishment that Freddie would love him enough to be his husband, and more … _pride_.  
  
That feeling was what sent Ephram tipping over the edge, grabbing onto Freddie’s thick shoulders and jackhammering into him with hoarse, wheezing cries. “Cum for me, Freddie, honey, let me see it, let me taste it,” Ephram gasped against the juncture of Freddie’s wings, his hips jerking uncontrollably as he drained himself into Freddie’s body. “Fuck, you always take my load so good, baby, fill you up so good, huh? You like how it feels being choked full of my spunk, baby?” Ephram bit at Freddie’s ear in a frenzy, thrusting into him a few more times. He didn’t want to stop. Not with Freddie here spread beneath him, loving every bit of it … and most of all, loving Ephram.  
  
Freddie gloried in the way it felt to have Ephram come inside him; the swell and pulse of that thick, hard prick as his witch emptied himself; the strength of his hands, and the force of his hips - driving harder and deeper, arrhythmic and intense. The heat of Ephram’s breath on Freddie’s skin as he praised him, and the bliss of being the one it was for.  
  
It felt like what Freddie’s body had been designed for; something it was simply meant to do.  
  
And he hated to let that feeling go.  
  
Squeezing his muscles around Ephram’s cock, the fairy had groaned his answers to Ephram’s panted questions - _yes, yes, yes… it felt so fucking good… please, Ephram_ … - pushing back harder and harder into each stuttering thrust, his hand flying over his own throbbing erection…  
  
And the moment Ephram bit into his earlobe, Freddie tumbled over the edge. He let out a guttural sob, coming hard and fast; arching his back and crushing his wings against Ephram’s chest, as he painted the sofa with thick, white spatters of cum; sagging into a heaving mess in his husband’s arms, Ephram’s cock still inside him.  
  
“God, I love you,” he panted, turning his head to mouth at Ephram’s bearded jawline, “I needed that so _much_ , sweetheart…”  
  
“…needed _you_ …”  
  
The feel of Freddie’s wings crumpled against him, the way that his husband arched back like that with the lovely, somewhat wilted gauze of his fairy wings pushed against Ephram – how _safe_ Freddie must feel with him, to do something like that without thinking – it made Ephram’s cock jump again, spurting thinly inside Freddie as the fairy cried out his own orgasm.  
  
“Love you too, sweetheart. So much.” Ephram scooped his hand under Freddie’s spent cock and balls, gently squeezing and stroking them. “Watching you cum and knowing I had a part in it is like winning gold, you know that?” He kissed Freddie’s shoulder, then pushed him down further so that Ephram could bend enough to lick one of those pearly streaks from the sofa with a hum of deep contentment before easing out of Freddie.

Freddie groaned softly as Ephram fondled him, smiling at the press of warm lips to his shoulder, and moving easily, wherever, and however, Ephram positioned him - pliant and obedient, post-orgasm.  
  
He watched as Ephram lapped up a streak of spunk from where it had landed on the sofa, and mmm’d his approval, biting his lip gently when his husband’s cock finally slipped free of his body. Ephram’s spend would start to leak out of him soon enough, he knew - gravity waited for no-one - but Freddie was in no real hurry to clean up. He actually thought he might prefer to have Ephram linger on him, and in him, a while.

Ephram did his pants back up heedless of the mess. He kind of wanted to feel sex-stained at the moment, let the remnants of their need season his skin. “C’mon,” he said to Freddie, looping an arm around his waist and giving him a kiss. “I need somethin’ to drink.”  
  
“A drink sounds wonderful,” the fairy agreed into the kiss, grinning against Ephram’s lips; struck, not for the first time, by how good it felt to be touched this way after sex. Held, and kissed, and cuddled - surrounded by warmth, and affection. It wasn’t something he thought he’d ever get used to.  
  
It wasn’t anything he ever thought he’d have.

They snagged Freddie’s clothes from the staircase as they passed by on the way to the kitchen, and Ephram jogged outside to get his keys and shut the jeep door – and the front door, for that matter. “Anybody coulda come in and seen us fuckin’!” he announced to Freddie happily, opening their liquor cabinet and taking out a bottle of mournoraki that Freddie had brought home one day (”So you’ll know what the local tipple is when I take you to Chania, love”) to pour them both a shot. “Wouldn’t that of been somethin’.” He leaned across the island counter to smooch Freddie and nuzzle him for a moment. “But right now I’m fine having you all to myself, baby. It’s been a little fuckin’ frantic round here lately and I missed my sweet husband.” Ephram threw back his raki, then kissed Freddie again, licking the mulberry taste around his mouth.  
  
Getting dressed again as Ephram went back outside to fetch his keys - everything had been left as it stood when he’d arrived home, both of them too intent on each other to care about things like open doors, or scandalized neighbors - when his witch arrived back in the kitchen, announcing with a delighted sort of pride that anyone who happened past might have seen them fucking like love-starved maniacs, Freddie just laughed, leaning across the counter for his kiss.  
  
He tipped back the shot that Ephram poured him, glad that his lover had embraced the raki so enthusiastically, and nodded his agreement with a small chuckle. “Frantic is a very diplomatic word for it, darling,” he said, watching the long, graceful lines of Ephram’s throat as he swallowed, before moving closer again; pleased to be drawn in for another kiss. “But I’ve missed you too. And I’ll certainly never object to an opportunity to have all of your attention…”  
  
Freddie shot his husband a vaguely cheeky little smirk. “I know it’s hideously selfish of me, but sometimes I just want to be the most important thing in the room.”  
  
“As if you could be anything other.” Ephram cupped Freddie’s jaw with one hand, dragging his thumb over that plush bottom lip and watching it yield like a plum, swollen from kisses. “I’m getting real accustomed to you being mine, Freddie Watts.” Ephram patted Freddie’s cheek before turning back to the kitchen cabinets, getting a couple of glasses and taking out the jug of lemonade from the fridge. He poured them both glasses as he asked, “You must have a middle name to go along with that, Freddie. Is it something super English like, uh, Nigel or Hugh or something?”  
  
Ephram drank half of his glass, bumping his hip lightly against the counter. “Mine’s Odell,” he chuckled. “Can’t get more country than that. For my Uncle Odell, my Momma’s brother. He taught me to play music. Taught me a lil clogging but I ain’t real light on my feet for it.” Rolling his shoulders out, Ephram said with slightly more seriousness, “It’s okay to use the garbage disposal again, by the way. Managed to get the rest of that rattler cleared out.” He shook his head, drinking more lemonade. “Damndest thing. I spent my whole life up in the hills never getting bit by so much as a possum, and now here I am in the city getting three bites from rattlesnakes.”  
  
Despite the subject matter, Ephram didn’t sound particularly disturbed by what had happened. In fact, he even sounded a little amused. Standing here in their kitchen drinking companionably, with the taste and sound and feel of Freddie still a pleasant linger in his senses, Ephram felt his stress and tension drain away. The sex might have had something to do with that, but a lot of it was just being around his husband. He smiled over at Freddie, inviting him in on the joke, knowing that the fairy shared the same sense of dark humour albeit with his own Union Jack twist.  
  
Freddie smiled as Ephram touched his face, well aware that whatever he might want to say in response was already likely evident in his eyes; and he just watched, instead, as Ephram made his way to the refrigerator, taking his glass with a murmured, “Thank-you, darling” when it was passed his way.  
  
“I’ve got two, actually,” Freddie chuckled, when his husband inquired about his middle names - it was funny really, how they were still learning those sorts of mundane facts about one another - “But only one of them’s terribly ‘English’. My full name’s Frederick Reginald - after my father - Didier - my mum was French - Watts.” The fairy rolled his eyes with a laugh. “It’s bloody awful.” He grinned. “I rather like Odell though. It’s got…character. Do you know,” he went on, “- since you mentioned music - that I’ve still never heard you play a note? We’ll have to rectify that, love.” He sighed. “Once things have settled down some, I suppose.”  
  
Freddie smiled again. “Though I can’t say I’m one hundred percent sure I know what clogging is…” Taking a sip of his lemonade as Ephram spoke about the garbage disposal, he nodded. “Thank-you, sweetheart,” he said, “When I cleaned up in here that night it never occurred to me to sort out the disposal. It should have - but I just never thought.”  
  
The fairy smirked slightly at the way his husband seemed almost amused by his most recent near-death experience. It wasn’t funny - the night it had happened, when Freddie had walked into the bloody mess in the kitchen and seen the dead snakes, he’d been absolutely sick with worry - but now, with both Ephram and Ruby safe and sound, and in light of everything else they’d been through, religious rattlesnakes seemed almost absurd. Besides, what choice did they have but to start sorting the near-constant stream of attacks and threats that Ruby seemed to be under at all times into levels of seriousness? Ascribing the same amount of concern to each of them would drive Freddie and Ephram utterly around the bend in short order.  
  
“Well,” Freddie said playfully, “-they can hardly be blamed for wanting to sink their teeth into you, darling. I suffer from precisely the same inclination.”  
  
“Frederick Reginald Didier Watts,” Ephram repeated painstakingly, not doing too bad a job of it apart from giving the French name a twang. “FRDW. I’m gonna Sharpie that into all your underwears from now on.” He made a noise of protest when Freddie declared his full name to be awful, saying, “Aw now, it’s nice, I like it! Like that older Von Trapp kid who was in love with Sister Maria. Frederick.”  
  
The slightly related comment that Freddie made about not having heard Ephram play anything yet got the witch blinking in surprise. “Shit,” he said, “that is an unhappy oversight I’m gonna have to resolve right soon, darlin’. Seeing as you made me wanna lift my voice in praise anyhow.” Sentimental words, but Ephram allowed himself to be a little flowery when it came to Freddie. He hadn’t forgotten his husband’s encouragement when it came to writing, so Ephram was tentatively trotting out more embellished turns of phrase, testing them aloud before he got up the gumption to commit to paper. “I’ll get my banjo and guitar and play for you. On the condition that you sing along a lil bit.” He grinned. “I promise it won’t all be spirituals and hootenanny.”

Freddie rolled his eyes again, laughing. “The only thing worse than my name as it is, would be if I was a bloody Von Trapp to boot.” He grinned. “Though I think my father would have been keener on having to feed and clothe me if I’d have fallen in line every time he blew a whistle.”  
  
And he laughed again a moment later at the notion of spirituals of hootenanny. “Darling,” he said, stepping close enough to slide his arms around his husband’s waist, despite the half-full glass of lemonade still in his hand, “-I wouldn’t know a spiritual or a folk-song if it sat in my lap. And besides, once you hear me sing, you’ll realize that that’s a blessing. This voice doesn’t lend itself well to harmonizing.”  
  
He leaned up and stole a kiss from Ephram’s lips. “But I’m looking very forward to hearing you lift yours.” Ephram’s compliments - the sweetness of his voice, and the way each word seemed somehow carefully chosen - could warm Freddie for days after he’d been given one. And those that likened loving him to something vaguely sacred…  
  
Well, those were even better. Poetic and lovely, Freddie could never quite get enough.

Snagging the bottle of raki, Ephram nodded towards the backyard. “Let’s go lie out in the sun,” he suggested. “I could use the rest – and the fresh air, tell you the truth. I been cooped up in the station and the jeep too much in the last twelve hours.” Plus, despite the fact that they were both in a place to chortle about the snakes now, the kitchen was still a little too close to the incident.  
  
Ephram also grabbed a box of honeycomb cereal on the way out, telling Freddie, “Grab a blanket if you want, honey, I’m aiming to lie on the grass,” and stooping to pick up Ollie as the little Chin came bounding out the moment the door opened. “I missed you too, bud,” he told the familiar, snuggling his silky head. Turning to walk backward as he watched Freddie follow, eyes softening at the way the sunshine seemed to gild his fairy a sumptuous rosegold, a living piece of art, Ephram set Ollie free and said, “I should press-gang Ollie into being a one-person K9 unit. Until we get some willing werewolves, that is. Then _he_ can train em and boss em all around.”  
  
Kissing his witch just once more, the fairy stepped back again, smiling when Ephram suggested they go outside, and nodding his head. “I wouldn’t mind a little sun myself actually,” he said, “I likely look even worse than I think I do after being bedridden for so long.”  
  
“In fact… you probably just fucked the arse off me to be nice,” he called teasingly as he headed back into the living room to retrieve one of the throws from the sofa; returning to the kitchen just in time to see Ephram scoop Ollie into his arms, unable to hold back a smile.  
  
Oliver genuinely approved of very little - but Ephram, he’d embraced wholeheartedly; and Freddie was very thankful for it. Not many people really understood the relationship between fairy and familiar - or cared to - and his lover had always gone out of his way to try. So much so that Ephram seemed to see Ollie for what he was right away. The witch never treated him like a pet, or implied he was somehow less than a fully-realized individual in his own right.  
  
And that level of respect made all the difference.  
  
Following Ephram and Ollie outside into the sunshine - it was a beautiful afternoon; made all the more so by the view, and the company - Freddie chuckled at Ephram’s suggestion, watching the way Ollie paused in the wanderings to stand up a little straighter and puff his chest out. “Do you see that?” the fairy said to his husband, nodding in the Chin’s general direction as he spread his blanket out, and settled down on it, propped up on his elbows. “He’ll want a badge now.”  
  
Freddie grinned at his familiar, and then at his husband. “He’s a little brute though; he’ll have your whole force up on charges, biting ankles and tripping suspects.”  
  
Ollie huffed, coming over to claim his own piece of real estate on the blanket, and bit Freddie’s ankle lightly in retaliation before laying down. “See?” Freddie said, “He’s a rogue, sweetheart. Plays by his own rules. That’s not the sort of cop you want in the field.” His smile softening into something a little more thoughtful, Freddie looked up at Ephram. “You’re getting more people all the time though, yeah? Ones you trust to do the job the way you want it?”  
  
“Ho yeah, that’s exactly why I ran red lights to get back home to fuck you silly,” Ephram nodded, lips pressed inward and eyebrows high. “I figured, y’know, I got that broken-down ol’ hoss back home, probably could use a pity fuck.” He snorted, not wanting to continue that particular joke too long – his Freddie was a confident man, but his fairy had never been sick, and likely was feeling a little mushed-up in recovery.  
  
Ollie’s posing and posturing were entirely adorable, just like Freddie, and Ephram had to hold back on scooping Ollie up and covering him with kisses the way he was tempted to do to Freddie sometimes. “Good Lord, Ollie. I ain’t got time for no loose cannons on my force, that’s for damn sure. Guess your dreams of that badge and commendation are dashed for now.”  
  
Dropping easily to sit on the grass next to the blanket, Ephram crossed his legs and raised one knee, his elbow balanced on it as he caressed Freddie’s face. “We’re getting some new recruits, yeah,” he nodded. “Soon we’ll be running well-oiled and crackerjack, but till then I – somehow! – got seniority and the most experience, so it’s a lot of ride-alongs and training and signing off on reports.” Ephram didn’t say it in so many words, but there was profound satisfaction as he spoke and quiet pride in his position in town now, a bad boy made good. “I know Ruby worries that I’m overworkin’ myself but I promise I’m not, sweetheart. I’m layin’ foundation and that always takes the most effort. Building on top of it ain’t half as difficult so long as you did it right and took your time.”  
  
He leaned forward and kissed Freddie, more slow and syrupy than the sunshine they were under. Autumn was definitely arrived and there was a slight breeze that rustled through the numerous trees on the property. “It’ll be nice here in the fall with you,” he murmured, still kissing Freddie between statements. “Cozy and homey and … oh, hey, should we give out candy on Halloween? I say yes. Although I dunno how many kids would come by here, hmmm.”  
  
Leaning across Freddie, Ephram picked up his box of cereal from where he’d dropped it and started munching on the honeycomb pieces. “We got a lot of important holidays coming up, huh?” he said. “You’re gonna have a helluva time navigating, babe.” He didn’t mention Elizabeth by name, having promised the woman that for all intents and purposes they should act like strangers to each other for her comfort - Elizabeth made no bones about how much she hated any sign that Ephram had a place in Freddie's life - but it was clear what he meant. “Just so’s you know, Ruby and me’ll understand however you choose to do it.”  
  
Freddie smiled with pride as Ephram told him about his work, chuffed to bits at the way his witch seemed aware of his own talents and skills; loving the confidence he heard in his voice, and saw in the set of his shoulders. “You, my darling,” Freddie said, “-are absolutely the best thing that could have happened to the Soapberry Sheriff’s department. And I’m glad to see that they know that too.”  
  
The fairy turned his face to press a kiss to Ephram’s palm. “And I’ve told Ruby you know your limits; that you’ll delegate as soon as you’re able… We just miss you, is all.” He smiled again, a wicked little gleam in his eye. “Though I'm not above going out and getting arrested if I find myself in dire need of some attention.”  
  
“I miss you every damn minute I ain’t with you,” Ephram agreed, pressing one hand to Freddie’s side so he could feel the man’s ribcage move with his breathing. “But I kinda like that. Gets my appetite sharpened up for when I’m with you again.” He kissed Freddie and grinned into it, murmuring, “…but get yourself arrested in my town, bubba, and it’ll be picking up garbage along the road for you instead of anything _remotely_ sexy.”  
  
Freddie preened into Ephram’s kiss at when he heard how acutely he was missed - and then frowned exaggeratedly at the notion of being made to pick up trash. “In one of those hideous orange jumpsuits?” he protested, “But that’s not fair at all.” His eyes sparkled and he tugged Ephram closer again, reaching down to give his behind a good grope. “Couldn’t I be put in charge of emptying the wastepaper bin in your office instead? I think that’s a much better idea…”  
  
“And I’ll wear anything you like while I do it…” He nipped playfully at Ephram’s lower lip. “Other than an orange jumpsuit.”

“Would it help if I let you accessorize the orange jumpsuit however you want?” Ephram inquired brightly, but then made a petulant sound when Freddie mentioned the wastebasket. “Come on now, honey, that’s just unfair,” he murmured, voice gliding lower. “Now you got me with all sorts’ve visions of keeping you under my desk at work and I won’t be able to shake em.” He tugged Freddie until they were on their sides, off of his fairy’s sore wings, and kissed his way down the middle of Freddie’s chest, rubbing his face against him as if he was marking his husband with his scent.

“I could though…” Freddie said, shifting closer when Ephram rolled them onto their sides, facing one another; his voice turning throatier as Ephram nuzzled at his chest, “I’ve been dreaming on that for ages, love. Under that big, officious desk of yours, your uniform trousers open just enough for me to take your cock out…”  
  
“Down on my knees, sucking you dry while I toss myself off, and everyone else in the station works around you…” He tugged Ephram up and kissed him again, deep and dirty, a teasing grin on his face when he finally pulled back. “I can’t think of a nicer way to spend an afternoon, can you?”

When Ephram leaned in to kiss him properly, Freddie tugged him closer, making a deep noise of contentment as they took their time with it; indulging in long, slow, lingering kisses that mapped the finer details of each others’ mouths; suggestive of the gentle hunger between them that never really seemed to be sated. But he smiled against Ephram’s lips at the mention of Halloween.  
  
“I suppose we should give out candy,” he said, “I mean, there’ve got to be a few kids up round here, at least. Jamara can’t only be vampires, and frigid aging one-percenters.”  
  
He grinned at Ephram. “What was Halloween like in Apple Fall, love? I mean, I’m rather new to the whole thing, really… Halloween wasn’t much of a consideration when I was a child.”  
  
With Ephram settled across his chest, snacking on his cereal, Freddie folded an arm behind his head, and made himself as comfortable as he could on his still achy wings, vaguely confused as to which holidays were approaching. By and large, holidays passed in Freddie’s life without any sort of fanfare at all. “Well, there’s Halloween,” the fairy said, his forehead wrinkling slightly as he searched his memory, “-and Christmas - but that’s months off, yet…”  
  
He looked up at Ephram, puzzled. “And that’s it, isn’t it? I didn’t think Americans celebrated Bonfire Night…”

Ephram hummed at Freddie’s question, saying, “It was pretty good! We usually went around in groups and shoved each other and squabbled over candy and what jack o’lanterns were spookiest. We’d always go back to my Aunt Bone’s place and dump out all our candy and trade for the rest of the night.” Ephram smooched Freddie’s shoulder and said, “And this was before all the razor blade and drug scares, so sometimes we’d have caramel apples and lil brown bags of popcorn stapled shut and there was this one ol’ coot made fudge with whisky in it.” He snickered, crunching on his cereal. “The older cousins would take all those and cuff any of us dared protest. But they normally paid us back in Tootsie Rolls.”  
  
Setting the box aside, Ephram reached for the raki bottle and swigged some, planting a soft sticky kiss on Freddie’s lips. “Was Halloween even a thing in England?” he wondered aloud. “Was it that bonfire thing instead, is that when you burn that feller in effigy? Anyhow, Thanksgiving is between that and Christmas and then there’s New Year’s. But I never cared about New Year’s so you can go to some fancy party if you wanna.” He tickled along Freddie’s ribs with a laugh. “You gotta go out and do some sparkly rich people things now and again to keep yourself content, I reckon.” The image of it was an appealing one and Ephram got lost in his own fantasy of it for a moment, settling his cheek against Freddie’s chest. “You dressed up to the nines, the prettiest of all pretty things … surrounded by diamond-dripping people who look good and talk smart and awwllll wanna catch your eye, honey, just to get one tiny lil eyelash worth of your time.”  
  
He pushed his nose against Freddie’s skin. “They gotta fight it out, the poor bastards. Because you give me all your time for free and gratis.” Ephram groaned slightly, wrapping an arm around his husband and burrowing against him. “Christ I love you, Freddie,” he said, muffled. “You changed my goddamn life and it’s … it’s like nothing I _ever_ imagined.”  
  
He listened happily as Ephram relayed the details of his childhood Halloweens, trying to picture his husband as a little boy. “Aunt _Bone_?” he chuckled, “However did she get a name like that?” before going on to answer Ephram’s question. “Not as such, no. Not like it is here. I hear the American version’s made something of a big splash in the last few years - but when I was little it was all but non-existent.”  
  
“Bahraman always took me out to see the fireworks on Bonfire Night though - but that’s not until the fifth of November.” He smiled. “And I forgot about Thanksgiving, didn’t I? Probably because we don’t do that one either. Is it something you and Ruby are partial to?”  
  
Freddie laughed, squirming slightly as Ephram tickled him, teasing him about fancy parties. “I am fond of a good New Year’s Eve do, yeah,” he said with a grin, “It’s the only holiday you don’t need a family for, after all. Never mind the clothes, and the booze, and the showing off.”  
  
“Last year I was in Dubrovnik, and the year before that it was Paris… Istanbul’s wonderful on New Year’s Eve too though, and Vienna…” Freddie smiled, thinking about the cities he loved, and then focused back on Ephram again, his expression dimming slightly. “Do you really not like it, love? Is that a fantasy I’ll have to resign myself to leaving unfulfilled?”  
  
He grinned again though as Ephram snuggled up close, holding him tightly, and telling him that he loved him. “I love you too, darling,” he said, squeezing his husband back. “I don’t even like to think of how empty my life was before you were in it. And Ruby and Lizzie, too. You’re everything, sweetheart.”  
  
Ephram had been the _first_ though; the first spark of…more. The first person Freddie had ever loved who’d returned his feelings.  
  
He was the fairy’s first in all the ways that mattered.  
  
“Aunt Bone was premature born,” Ephram said, scraping his teeth over the line of one of his fairy's ribs. “She weren’t no bigger’n a knucklebone.” Settling down again now that he’d been able to get his periodic replenishment of touching and kissing Freddie, Ephram plucked a few blades of grass and toyed with them as he asked, “What did you and her do when you went to the bonfire? Was there like, some kinda food to eat while you watched, or some song to sing? Tell me ‘bout your weird English ways.” He wanted to hear more about Freddie’s relationship with Bahraman, too, and this seemed like a gentler way to do that than to ask him outright. For all that his own childhood had its harsh points, at least Ephram had always, _always_ had people around that he could go to, curl up with, sob his troubles to if he needed. The thought of Freddie so small and devastatingly _alone_ and having to stuff his fear so far down that he couldn’t even acknowledge it now as a grown man was heart-shattering.  
  
His gaze softening as he looked up at Freddie, listening to all of the far-off place names that were familiar and unfamiliar, Ephram caught Freddie’s tinge of disappointment and propped up on his elbow against the blanket. “Oh, sweetheart,” he said, “I know you can do wonders with sow’s ears, fairy dust or not, but I step one foot in any of them places and they’ll sniff me out as hillbilly trash the second I open my mouth or do something dumb that’ll embarrass you – and me, for that matter – in front of everybody.” He trailed the grass along Freddie’s arm, shaking his rumpled head. “Take Ruby or Elizabeth, they know how to behave among civilized people.” Ephram butted Freddie’s chest with his forehead, trying to convince Freddie that it would be okay, that he wouldn't mind being left home if Freddie wanted to take one of his other lovers. One more suited to pretty things and lovely places than Ephram was.  
  
Freddie watched as Ephram pulled up the grass, eyes dragging slowly and lovingly over the long lines of his witch’s body, over the golden glow of his hair and skin - and then laughed when he was encouraged to share stories of his ‘weird English ways’. “Oy,” he said, “-you’ve got an Aunt Bone, so I’d watch who you’re calling weird, mate.”  
  
“But there’s not really much to tell. I mean, Bonfire Night is pretty much just what it says on the tin. Guy Fawkes notwithstanding - ‘remember, remember the fifth of November’ and all that business - really it’s just an excuse for some pyro. Bahraman would bundle me up, and we’d go out and freeze our arses off - me dragging her about wanting jacket potatoes, and toffee apples, and whatever else anybody was flogging that I could stuff in my gob - and then we’d watch the show.”  
  
Freddie told the facts casually enough; as though it was neither here nor there, just something that had happened - but as a child he’d _loved_ Bonfire Night. He’d loved the crowds and the food; and when he was small, he’d thought fireworks were the most wonderful things in the world. Next to Bahraman, of course - who promised him that she found them equally brilliant.  
  
As an adult, he was still very fond of fireworks - they appealed to him on a deep core level as a fairy - but he’d never bothered with another Bonfire Night. Even if he happened to find himself in London on the fifth. So he smiled, with a bit of a shrug. “Boring, really; sorry, darling. I’m afraid you’ve rather got the market cornered on interesting childhood stories.”  
  
The fairy couldn’t help but frown again though as Ephram cited his reasons for bowing out of Freddie’s once and future New Year’s plans. “Listen,” he said softly, touching his husband’s face and tilting his chin up, “-I hate it when you do that. You’re _not_ hillbilly trash, sweetheart; and you could never ever embarrass me. I’m proud of you anywhere and _everywhere_ we go - and anyone with the nerve to so much as look at you sideways has absolutely no class at all.”  
  
He caressed Ephram’s cheek. “Do you really think I’d stand for someone to treat you badly?”  
  
Ephram listened to Freddie describe his childhood enjoyment of the festival with a feeling of adoration for his sweet, needy husband suffusing his chest. The sowing of British idioms got thicker the more Freddie talked, and Ephram took note of each one and any inflection behind it, behind Freddie’s disaffected manner of telling. The fairy was a master of conveying exactly what he wanted to and nothing else, so Ephram couldn’t sift out much in the way of emotion, but there was that … _connection_ between them that had knotted them together since the very moment they’d met. And he could tell this was no throwaway memory.  
  
Ephram was of the mind that _no_ memory concerning Bahraman was anything other than a meticulously polished treasure that Freddie kept carefully stored deep in his wistful, longing heart. Where he could keep them close but maybe not visit too often because it would remind him of how easily he could be given up, left behind. A pang echoed in Ephram’s heart. He’d added to that wound, emptied a load of buckshot into it with his neurotic, self-pitying stupidity, trying to sacrifice his own place in Freddie's life for Elizabeth's sake. How he could ever have been so cruel to this little ball of sunshine and warmth and love was nothing short of travesty, and Ephram meant to spend every moment with Freddie picking out those shot pellets.  
  
“I don’t think it’s boring at all,” he murmured, stroking Freddie’s soft, brushy hair. “I like it. Little you all swaddled in a big coat and scarf, mowing down warm potatoes and sticky apples, watching them fireworks with big, fascinated eyes, not wanting to miss a thing. Barely blinking when the colours and stars went up. Hmmm? Sounds like a real pretty childhood memory to me, sweetheart.”  
  
The notion of it put Ephram in a state of half-drowsy affection, so even when Freddie got a little more serious, tipping his face up so Ephram could see the earnestness in his protests, it didn’t shift the witch out of his pleasant mood. “Oh, honey,” Ephram said, loving every second of Freddie’s fierce repudiation of something Ephram knew to be true but wanted to hear his husband rail against anyhow, “it ain’t about that. I know you’d stand up for me against anybody, anytime.”  
  
The exception of Elizabeth popped up in Ephram’s mind, but he dismissed it. Freddie shouldn’t have to be put in that situation; it was exactly what Ephram had been wrong-headedly trying to ameliorate when he’d made his foolish offer to the woman. But after his promise to Elizabeth to not upset her with his presence or existence in Freddie’s life unless completely necessary, maybe it would become a moot point, anyhow. Ephram certainly hoped so. It was ridiculous of him to be so stung by the suspicions and insults of a girl that young who’d been through so many horrible things.  
  
He leaned forward and kissed Freddie’s pursed, perturbed mouth. “Sweetpea,” Ephram murmured, “if it’s what you really want, I’ll go to some glitzy party with you. I’ll go anywhere with you, Freddie. You’re the only person whose reaction I’d care ‘bout anyhow.” He grinned a little. “And despite my words to the contrary, I think I’d be right curious to see what that sort’ve New Year’s bash is like.”  
  
Freddie smiled as Ephram ran his fingers through his hair, but he didn’t say much of anything; not wanting to linger in the past too long. Knowing from experience that it was better to be in and out; to glance at things quickly before the soft glow of nostalgia could fade. The reality of his childhood had much sharper edges, and Freddie had cut himself more that once.  
  
It was easier to focus on refuting Ephram’s concerns about New Year’s Eve; easier to wrap himself in his love for Ephram and leave his own memories in the past, where they belonged.  
  
“I certainly hope you know it,” the fairy said softly, taking his husband’s hand and kissing it. “Because if you don’t, then I’ve some got work to do…”  
  
“If you don’t, I’ve done you a terrible disservice, darling.”  
  
Freddie’s frown melted slightly when Ephram kissed it though, turning into a full-blown smile again when his witch grinned at him; pledging to go anywhere with him, to not really care about any opinions apart from Freddie’s anyway.  
  
“Well, that works out then,” Freddie smiled, “-because I don’t really care about parties, love.” He moved closer, helping himself to another kiss; slow and sweet this time. “I’ve been to _parties_ …”  
  
“The fantasy is all about showing off, sweetheart. Showing off with you, and _for_ you… Showing everyone who’s close enough to look just exactly how lucky I am.”  
  
He pulled back, a teasing gleam in his eyes. “Let them all choke on their envy, yeah?” This was something else that Freddie had never expected. Conversations like this; moments of quiet happy intimacy with someone he loved and respected. Someone as genuinely good, and kind, as Ephram, who looked at him as though he were something to prize.  
  
“Showing off with me?” Ephram repeated the words as if they were in another language, the concept entirely new to him when configured to mean that he’d be included as one of the displayed. He couldn’t wrap his head around that enough to visualize it, but Ephram chuckled and shook his head. “Whatever you want, honey darlin’. Who knows – maybe with you there to bolster me, I just might could figure out how to do a lil sparkling of my own, hey?”  
  
“You sparkle whether I’m anywhere near you or not,” Freddie said. “I just happen to have the very good taste to want to make the most of it.”  
  



End file.
